Man suspected as ‘Flint serial killer’ tried to settle in Northern Virginia
The man arrested Wednesday and accused of being the “Flint serial killer” is a Christian from Israel who tried unsuccessfully to put down roots in Northern Virginia and once worked with troubled children at a Leesburg mental health facility, according to friends and court records.
Elias Abuelazam, 33, married twice and tried to settle down in the region, first in Fairfax County and then in Leesburg. Both marriages ended in divorce, and after the last one in 2007, Abuelazam’s life became more nomadic. He bounced between Loudoun County, Michigan, Florida and Israel, the friends and court records say.
Nothing in Abuelazam’s past could have predicted what authorities say he has done since May, the friends said. Over the past 11 weeks, Abuelazam began randomly stabbing and attacking men — most of them black — in Michigan, Virginia and Ohio, police say.
About 10 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents paged him over a loudspeaker at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where he was about to board Delta Flight 152 for Tel Aviv.
Abuelazam was being held Thursday in Georgia, awaiting extradition to Michigan to face charges in one of the stabbings.